News

Agents of the Guardia di Finanza confiscated Mafia assets for millions of euro in Milan and in Sardinia.
http://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/07/05/news/le_mani_della_mafia_sui_locali_del_centro_anche_il_samarani_caf_sotto_sequestro-38557719/?ref=HREC2-6

THREE Mafia figures living freely in Australia and labelled “extremely dangerous” by Italian authorities have been sentenced in absentia to long jail terms for international drug trafficking.The Saturday Age can reveal that Australian men Nicola Ciconte, Vincenzo Medici and Michael Calleja have been convicted and sentenced in Italy for their role in a plot to smuggle up to 500 kilograms of cocaine into Australia.

looks like someone found the Guardian’s crime editor at last! three articles on the same day! S/he will probably vanish for several months again now.
Again, the story links sport and organised crime, in this case money laundering for drug cartels through a horse breeding business. Zetas cartel involvement alleged.

Giovanni Conso, a former Italian Justice Minister, has been accused of having provided false information to the public prosecutor concerning the cancelation of the “carcere duro”(an exceptional regime that can be used according to Italian law for people imprisoned for particular serious crimes) for more than 300 mafiosi.

A major operation has led to the arrest of dozens of “camorristi” linked to the Mallardo’s clan and to the seizure of significant assets in six different Italian regions (Campania, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Abruzzo, Calabria and Lombardia).